MMO-ing: Is World of Warcraft Still Worth the Grind?

Lots of MMO fans already had a max level World of Warcraft character before the recent Mists of Pandaria expansion hit shelves. Leveling those toons from 85 to 90 in a brand new zone was a grind we were all excited for. The introduction of additional lore and new zones, we can all agree, is a good thing.

But what about the prospect of starting a fresh character? Playing the new Monk class sounds like a ton of fun, but 90 levels is a hell of a lot to work through…

Is it really worth the grind?

We’ll do our best to attempt an answer at that in this edition of MMO-ing…

Starting Zones: The more things change, the more they stay the same

There’s no denying that starting a level 1 character is exciting. It’s a new chance to customize a face, choose a race, and experience a class for the first time.

It should really feel like a whole new game in a lot of ways, right? … but somehow it doesn’t.

Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2, for all their faults, managed to make starting zones feel important. Characters in those games are instantly thrust into engrossing stories and important battles.

You’d think Blizzard would have caught on to that…

Sure, the WoW starting zones give you an introduction to your race’s current situation in Azeroth, but it feels a bit unimportant. The landscape is beautiful and Pandaria is an incredibly fun zone to explore, but nothing seems quite as epic as it should right out of the gate. I was shocked to find myself bored within the first five levels. I continually found myself thinking, “Really? This quest again?”

The real problem is this: I don’t think this fatigue is just because I’ve been playing WoW for eight years.

A player new to the world of MMOs has plenty of choices. If they get a free trial for each of the major gw2 gold games and play through the first 10 levels of each, which do you think they’ll find the most compelling?

I don’t want to make a blanket statement, but I’d be very surprised if WoW’s first few levels were the ones that grabbed them. The outdated text box quest delivery system and mundane tasks just don’t suck a player in the way newer MMOs manage to do.

The real shame here is that WoW has a brilliant end-game. The PvP and Dungeon systems are a ton of fun. Combine those with the new Pandaria content and daily quests and there’s enough to keep any citizen of Azeroth busy.

But what about Cataclysm?!

It’s around this point in my argument that most loyal WoW fans bring up the Cataclysm expansion.

Cataclysm attempted to address the leveling fatigue issue that is the root of my problem with the game. In order to make leveling new characters more enticing, Blizzard tore apart plenty of the original content and redesigned it.

In addition to the change of scenery, the Cata changes overhauled the questing system to make it more linear. This was a great improvement and made leveling far less painful.

This was all awesome… the idea of a dragon waking up and changing the whole world was incredibly cool for the game’s lore.

Unfortunately, it still doesn’t work for me. It just takes too long.

I’ve leveled more WoW characters than I care to admit. They all start out well enough. I’m learning new abilities, exploring a new talent tree, experiencing Cata’s impact on Azeroth… but then I ding level 30 or 40 and stall out.

I know the end-game is still over 40 levels away and here I am running around Stranglethorn Valley (or Northern Stranglethorn, as it goes by these days) for the hundredth time.

It’s at this point that I start to wish I could have started around this level and just worked through the second half of the game.

Which brings us to the best failed idea WoW ever had…

The Death Knight is Dead, Long Live the Death Knight

World of Warcraft’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, introduced the concept of Hero Classes in 2008.

The only Hero Class so far is the Death Knight. What makes this type of class special is that they start at level 55. Only players that have a character higher than level 55 can roll a Hero Class toon.

I can’t pretend this was a flawless experiment. On Blizzard’s end, it was quite the opposite.

Starting a class at level 55 led to a lot of balancing issues that Blizzard was forced to address in patch after patch, once Wrath had been released. It was such a headache, that the company has since hinted there will never be another Hero Class.

All that said, the Death Knight managed to answer any problems I was starting to have with WoW back in the buy guild wars 2 gold game’s prime. The new Hero Class had what is still, by far, the best starting area and story for a WoW class (the Worgen starting zone and story wasn’t bad either, but in my opinion it doesn’t compare to the Ebon Hold adventures that the Death Knight is dropped into).

The instantly compelling starting zone combined with the ability to skip the first 54 levels made the prospect of rolling a new character fun again. It was a great reward for players that already had come close to max level and were looking to try something new without starting from scratch.

It worked out especially well for me, as my Death Knight became my favorite character to play. It was only partially due to the awesome Scorpion-style “Get Over Here!” pull.

When no new hero classes were introduced in WoW’s third expansion, Cataclysm, nobody was surprised. We got two new races, so the assumption became that new classes would come later. We were right that the eventual fourth expansion would bring a new class; many folks even predicted it would be the Monk way back in the Lich King days.

What some of us didn’t expect was that it would require classic leveling–none of that level 55 business for this class. If you want a Monk, you start at level one and be ready to deliver notes from one NPC to another for your first hour.

I’ve got a proposition for ya…

Guild Wars 2: Technical difficulties WvW - ArenaNet is working on improved load times for player characters

PvP in Guild Wars 2, especially in large-WvW battles, there are often delays while displaying other gw2 gold player characters. Sometimes the models are loaded quite late. In the official forum for Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet expresses the problem.

In the official forum for Guild Wars 2 is expressed by the German Community Manager Ramon Domke to display delays (problems with so-called "culling"), especially in PvP. Especially in large battles player characters are sometimes loaded late - so many Guild Wars players complain about the problem. ArenaNet that there are several reasons for the display delay.

For example, the number of characters is limited, the server tells the client - this is to ensure that clients for Guild Wars 2 at great battles must not calculate too many characters represent at once, it's time to load successively for the performance to improve. "This system is indeed very obvious advantages and works extremely well in PvE, but the large-scale battles that are characteristic of the WvW underline the occasional weaknesses of this approach," says the Post.

In addition, the performance is also influenced by the client itself and the performance of each computer. ArenaNet optimizations for the client provides the prospect that already should "soon" make improvements. It adds, however: "But the majority of the problem lies with the display time on the server side, how fast your client can load and display a character, does that is beside the point, if he does not know that this character exists at all."

The developers assure that they are working on solutions. However, since it involves complex adjustments with some far-reaching consequences, one could call currently no dates for implementation of the changes. The full contribution to the technical difficulties in WvW game of Guild Wars 2 you will find in the official game forum.

Buy guild wars 2 gold at gw2gold.net.

Guild Wars 2: Fight To Survive!

Guild Wars 2 combat mode compared to other MMO has some innovations, the players who participated in last weekend's demo may have such an feeling, why my life has not dead when value becomes zero out, but in front of the screen appeared a row of new skills, they do not know casually press after a few roles suddenly risen, and I think there are a considerable number of people confused about it ! Next, I'll give you a detailed introduction to Guild Wars 2 novel mode of dying!

As an explorer, you are facing the test of life and death at any time, because the danger of accidents everywhere. I believe that many explorers encountered such a scenario in other games: spend a lot of time and effort, the efforts of an elite monster hit and severely wounded, we only have the last trace of blood, but because of the lack of their own blood, can only sit looked at the enemy himself slaughtered, arrogant left; pop up a small team of monster siege own wild adventure, ultimately battled and lost to reluctantly looked at the role of the dead; deal with the enemy for a long time, finally fast enemies kill, he was the other side launched a fatal blow, he fell down dead, watched calmly away the enemy, but no chance to revenge, nor the opportunity to come back.

But these "Guild Wars 2" completely subverted, "Guild Wars 2" a unique set of games, so every explorers have the chance to win the game, this is the game in the "near-death state. "Guild Wars 2", if the roles were defeated, not directly to a black screen declaring the role of death, but into the moribund state. In this state, the role of a short period of time and will not die, and have the ability to attack, but enemy attack also loss of blood. If the blood strips reduced to zero before defeating the enemy, role can "resurrection", but only to restore part of the blood, is still in critical condition; if you can not beat the enemy, the role of the real death, when explorers who only returned to the delivery point they want to reach, reproduce journey of adventure.

"Moribund" Order combat in Guild Wars 2 "is full of suspense, because everyone has the opportunity to win the game, in the process of fighting with the enemy can not have a moment to relax, have to concentrate and until enemy actually fall, that is The final victory!

Dying mode

Fight To Survive! When the role of the value of life is reduced to 0, the role will be into the near-death mode. In this state, the role can only use four dying skills looking for opportunities to kill an enemy and resurrection. Dying skills are not very strong compared to other skills.

When players dying, replaced by awareness of the value of the role of life value. If consciousness is reduced to zero, the role will be defeated. Awareness of value when under attack would be reduced, at the same time per second will automatically reduce the thirtieth. Other players by touching role to restore the role of awareness of the value of awareness of the value of the full-back, and the role to stand up and return to normal state. The rescue than players awareness value greater than 0 players awareness value drops to 0 when rescue slower, a role multiple entry and fell to the ground state, then we should spend more time to stand up again.

Four gw2 gold players in underwater when Moribund skills and land, but its role is roughly the same, general Necromancer outside the the other occupations dying skills are almost 1 attack ; 2 for knockout; 3 for revenge died after 15 seconds of a supernatural power; 4 bandages, self-help (can be interrupted) bandage can be used in the case of attack self-help resurrection. Underwater death, the role can be slow-moving.

Necromancer players dying when you can press F1 to enter another state of activation of four new skills and characteristics of skills and almost ordinary skill, but the skill effect than the average career is hurt more strong.

For death, most career have immediate resurrection teammates and near the player's skill, but most skills are a range of restrictions, players use, be sure to close to dying players, this skill often copy the most commonly used .

The week in PC Gaming 12th / 18th November

Welcome to this week’s round-up of PCGamesN’s biggest news and best stories of the last seven days.
Out this week:

Julian had some early impressions of Black Ops 2. It had a rough start.

Rift: Storm Legion came out and the size of the world trebled.

We got Minecraft 1.4.4

The Old Republic has gone free-to-play.

Big reads and hands-on

Paul tells us what to expect from World of Tanks 8.2. Also, why Wargaming made premium shells free. Paul is also ready to tell you how to record and share your WoT gw2 gold games. Also: how you can upgrade your audio.

Everything we know about The Lost Shores even in Guild Wars 2.

We went over the Grand Theft Auto V trailer with a fine-toothed comb.

I visited Paradox in San Francisco last week and very much enjoyed my time with March of the Eagles. Europa Universalis IV is looking good, too.

Nick defended Lion’s Arch in The Lost Shores Guild Wars 2 event and lived to tell the tale. Then he delved into the Fractals of the Mist dungeon.

Paul took a detailed look at Age of Wulin.

Spotlight on Greenlight

eSports and MOBAs

Josh Augustine reviewed League of Legends’ new champion: Zed. They also teased new champion, Nami.

StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm has a release date!

We had some big news this week: MLG, DreamHack, and ESL have formed a partnership to help govern eSports.

This weekend has seen Blizzard’s first World Championship for StarCraft 2. They had a rough start.

Not be left out, Valve released their Dota 2 documentary.

And more...

THQ defaulted on a $50 million credit facility with Wells Fargo.

DirectX 11.1 is WIndows 8 exclusive.

“Still Alive” was originally an in-game musical number for Portal?

Minecraft sales crest 8 million.

Doom 3 (regular, not BFG Edition) came back to Steam.

More details on Guild Wars 2’s The Lost Shores event.

The Planetside 2 patch looks substantial.

Chris Roberts explains Star Citizen’s “pervasive universe”.

Gabe Newell explained why Steam’s terms of service forbid class-action lawsuits.

He also shared his views on Greenlight.

Notch has posted a code. What could it mean?!

The Traffic 360 add-on to Flight Simulator X adds tons of air traffic.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion got a big 1.1 patch.

The Hoopz Barkley SaGa continues.

This is quite the game music bundle.

Never forget this is the year of the Great TF2 Earbud Swindle.

Blizzard don’t think much of the authenticator lawsuit.

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition is going to take some time to get working with Win 8 on tablets.

Assassin’s Creed 3 on PC should be less buggy than what consoles received. Now there’s a boast to make. It should also be prettier.

You can preorder Little Inferno.

Here comes the Zero Dark Thirty DLC for Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

Tom Hardy is signed-on with the Splinter Cell movie.

Faceless, the highest rated game on Greenlight, is on hold due to copyright issues regarding its use of Slender Man.

Dragon Age 3’s art director likes Frostbite.

Despite Activision’s denials, it really does sound like Modern Warfare 4 is afoot.

We got your Skyrim: Dragonborn screenshots right here.

Sonic All Star Racing is coming to PC, and it now features TF2 characters!

The Secret World is getting a new issue, this time set in New York.

Take a look at Jagex’s Carnage Racing.

Gabe Newell to be honored by the AIAS.

Minecraft is full of bees.

The plot thickens around Planetside 2’s recoil mechanics.

Check out this cool Minecraft mapping tool.

The LA Game Space sounds fascinating, an attempt to create a kind of gaming research lab.

Star Citizen reached $4 million in funding.

Greece continues to hold Bohemia Interactive developers on espionage charges, and denied their bail request.

Guild Wars 2: Fractals of fog - Trailer for the new dungeon

The developers at ArenaNet have published on the official website of Guild Wars 2 new information on the upcoming dungeon fog fractals. To the makers have also released a trailer that is to tune into the new dungeon from different mini-dungeons. Fractals of the mist is introduced with the November update in Guild Wars 2.

With the November update for Guild Wars 2, which is played at the end of this week on the server, leading developers of ArenaNet also the new dungeon of fog fractals. On the official website of the online role-playing game content designer Leah Rivera has released some information and a video about the new dungeon. The fractals of fog consist of a series of mini-dungeons, the fractals. These are fragments of the time, which were stabilized by the asura researcher Dessa.

Players of the first Guild Wars will be in some of these fractals get a glimpse into the past to known events. These are intended for five players fractals of fog you can enter via a new portal in Lowenstein. Incidentally, there's a level cap, because players are like raised in WvW on stage 80. On the official website you read the article about the new dungeon. At the end of this article you can see the video on the fractals of the fog. For more news and information about Guild Wars 2, you get on our topic page.

Buy guild wars 2 gold at gw2gold.net.

Guild Wars 2: Announced free trial offer

For more players for Guild Wars 2 is to inspire developers ArenaNet have devised a new action. All active players of the online role-playing game from 12 to November invite up to three friends for a limited test phase in which this Guild Wars 2 can try it for free.

The developers of Guild Wars 2 have the official forums the campaign "Invite a friend" announced for the online role playing game. From the 12th November 2012 can invite players of Guild Wars 2 up to three friends to Tyria. These can then from 15 to 18 November free in the fantasy world plunge and try out Guild Wars 2. Here, the potential new gw2 gold players can also experience the same event chain around the introduction of the Lost Coast, on the 16th November starts.

Entitled to invite friends are all active accounts, the sixth before November 2012 8:59 clock was created. So if you have friends who want to convince you absolutely still in Guild Wars 2, you should let this get an invitation. For more information on "Invite a friend" campaign, the developers of ArenaNet announce as soon as the action starts. The announcement by the friends-action you read the official forums. For more news and information about Guild Wars 2 be found as always on our topic page.

Free Movies for a Month

"Does' Giga yet" is no longer just a phrase that is thrown GIGA editors regularly to the head. No, now it is also the best "Guild Wars 2" is guild in the world! At the forefront are GIGA-user Shinigma & Teranas and perform all major and minor Gigalinge in the guild war. How to get involved because you can? We tell you right here!

If you want the cross-server guild "Giga Does' yet" to join, we need only a PM on the forum or to Teranas Shinigma send and you apply for this type. Alternatively, you can do this via e-mail via gw2-gilde@pedia.giga.de do. Of course you must not forget to provide your account or character name. More information can be found also in the MMO forum.

In summary:

- Application via PM to Shinigma or Teranas

- Alternatively via gw2-gilde@pedia.giga.de

- Specify account or login!

Tags: gw2 gold;buy guild wars 2 gold

Guilded: Top Ten Things To Do After Level 80

Level 80 is the ultimate ding in Guild Wars 2. What's next? The hollow existential silence that reverberates after a Tibetan prayer bell? Or is this when the party starts? My Engineer just hit level 80 in the icy waters of Frostgorge Sound, which officially puts me into the endgame. Since I no longer have the convenient draw of the next level to pull me through Guild Wars 2, why would I keep playing? Glad you asked. Here are the top 10 things I'm looking forward to doing after you're level 80.

10) Elite Skills

The benefits of leveling up don't end at 80! Hitting the level cap won't unlock all your skills. Fortunately, you're still earning experience points as you play. As you fight, explore, quest, and craft, you still fill that bar at the bottom of the screen. Each time it gets full, you earn another skill point. You'll need a bunch more of these to get your expensive elite skills, which are determined by your choice of class and race. For me to get an Engineer's mortar and a charr's bazooka, I've got about 40 faux levels to go.

9) Get More Skill Points

I can also get skill points by doing the skill point challenges in the world, displayed on the map as chevrons. These are a bit like collectibles or hidden coins, but you have to work for them. They're guarded by bosses or jumping puzzles or even riddles. Open your map. Look at all those hollow chevrons waiting to be collected! Every one of them brings me that much closer to my mortar and bazooka.

Skill points are the currency that buys special items for the Mystic Forge.8) Spend Skill Points

Okay, so looking ahead into the future when I'm merrily mortaring and bazookaing my way through the world, I'm still not done with skill points. Skill points are the currency that buys special items for the Mystic Forge. You know the Mystic Forge, don't you? It's like a cross between a Horadric Cube, a lottery-ticket dispenser, and a treasure-eating trash compactor. It hates you. You throw perfectly good stuff into it and it usually spits out junk. Except for those rare times it spits out something useful. Which means you're foolish enough to keep throwing in perfectly good stuff. But the key to the Mystic Forge is the stuff you can buy from Miyani in Lion's Arch, and she'll only sell it for skill points.

7) Legendary Weapons

Guild Wars 2 has something called Legendary weapons. This is apparently the endgame endgame, and it goes for hundreds of hours beyond the level cap. Legendary weapons are mainly fancy visual upgrades, such as the fabled bow that shoots rainbows. Who can resist such a thing? This is what the Mystic Forge is ultimately for, and when I say ultimately, I mean ultimately. A Legendary weapon is as remote to me now as level 80 was when I first started playing. Every time I play, I pass through a character-select screen with an empty medal that indicates I don't have a legendary weapon. Thanks for the reminder,buy Guild Wars 2 gold .

While you're collecting stray skill points, why not let your OCD carry you through the game?

6) Finish The Maps

While you're collecting stray skill points, why not let your OCD carry you through the game? Each area in Guild Wars 2 tracks how many vistas, sites, respawn points, hearts, and skill points you've completed. You know you hundred-percented a few of them on your way to the level cap. Now the ones you didn't hundred-percent are taunting you. Which sounds more decisive? Level 80 or 100%? Hmm, just 18% more in Brisbane Wildlands? Whenever I hit M, I'm like Daniel Plainview looking down at the map, scowling and asking, "Why don't I own this?"

5) Achievements

If you need me to explain the draw of this part of Guild Wars 2, you wouldn't understand anyway. I may be level 80 but I'm only 22 more centaurs from the centaur slayer achievement, which will add five to my 931 achievement points.

A completely separate game played with your Guild Wars 2 character.4) Structured PvP

The larger-scaled PvP, in which servers battle over strongholds in the aptly named Eternal Battleground, is just one mode of Guild Wars 2's PvP. The other mode is called structured PvP, and it consists of short team battles, much like the original Guild Wars. You start out at level 1. It is a completely separate track of advancement. It is a completely separate set of gear. It is, basically, a completely separate game played with your Guild Wars 2 character.

Guild Wars 2

Welcome to the final installment (part five) of NZGamer.com’s ongoing Guild Wars 2 review, in which we discuss the latest Halloween content release, and attempt to sum up our feelings on the gw2 gold game as a whole.

Well, we finally did it, Gialp and I. Level 80 was reached with little fanfare but the immense sense of satisfaction of getting to the finish line. More of a marathon than a sprint, our journey took us from wide-eyed newcomer in the snow-draped settings of the Wayfarer Foothills, to hardened Guardian, forging against the undead in the Straits of Devastation and Malchor’s Leap.

In the last two months, Gialp has helped out citizens of Tyria of every shape and size: brave warriors, sweet pudgy quaggans, staunch farmers, and even the Kodan, noble polar bear people (everyone’s favourite pick for the next playable race). She’s stepped up to the mark as the reuniter of the Destiny’s Edge group, joined the Durmand Priory, and is now beginning to make direct moves against Zhaitan, the Elder Dragon of Orr, who is threatening Tyria with his waves of undead. She even learned to bake a decent cake.

All up, it’s been a hell of a trip.